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Claypool says 90K signatures to be filed

Democratic Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool says he'll file 90,000 signatures later today to join the November ballot. Claypool will run as an independent candidate against Democratic County Chairman Joe Berrios and others for the position of Assessor.

Democratic Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, in a press release today, said the campaign will file 90,000 signatures to appear on the November general election ballot as an independent running for Cook County Assessor. Claypool’s campaign manager, Thomas Bowen, said the campaign will file the petitions this afternoon at the Board of Elections.

The 90,000 signatures represent the work of 912 volunteer circulators, according to the campaign. Claypool is required to file 25,000 valid signatures to appear on the ballot. The campaign of Democratic opponent Joe Berrios is expected to challenge the filing.

Berrios, a Cook County Commissioner on the Board of Review and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, won a three-way race in the February primary with more than 39 percent of the vote.

Republican opponent Sharon Strobeck-Eckersall and Green Party candidate Robert C Grota will also oppose Claypool and Berrios. Claypool is a resident of the Graceland West neighborhood. He represents the Ravenswood community as Cook County Commissioner.

About Patrick Boylan

Patrick grew up near LaFollette Park on the West Side. He contends that the very best Italian beef sandwiches are made on the West Side and has a strange love of the flat pizza from that part of the city.
Patrick led The Bulldog to win seven journalism awards in 2011, including four awards to Patrick as a solo or a team member. He is very proud of The Dog's coverage of politics and schools in the neighborhood.
Patrick wrote for the Times of Northwest Indiana as a stringer covering Cook County Government, for the Chicago Tribune as a stringer on the Chicago Wolves and for ChicagoNow as a writer before starting The Dog. He wrote for four years for ChiTownDailyNews.org as a media commentator and spent about 20 years in operations at city newspapers, including nine years as owner of his own distribution company. Prior to that he spent about nine years in public relations.
Patrick has a Masters degree from the University of Colorado. He attended Eastern Illinois University for undergrad and Weber High School and St. Peter Canisius grammar school.
The two-flat he owns was built in 1912 and has never been featured, to his knowledge, in any major motion pictures despite having a way-cool garden. Patrick purchased the property in 1994 and "couldn't afford to buy it now."
His daughter is a college student in California. He lives in the house with his wife, Jane, and two cats who often sit in on his phone interviews.